After Image
by AniManGa19930
Summary: [One Shot] Hibari had been seeing what seemed to be a scene that should have never happened. Happy HibaTsuna Month 2020.


once upon a time i wanted to write this plot. 8 years later i finally wrote it with a change ... I'M REALLY SORRY.

anyway, unbeta-ed. ooc-ness. feeling of unsatisfied. i don't own KHR.

this fic is dedicated to hibatsuna month 2020 ofc

* * *

Summer was unbearably hot. Even _Hibari _couldn't bother to wear his outer suit during his patrol. Donned in simple white shirt with a black tie and black slacks, not to forget his must-to-be-on armband, he was pleased to find his city in tranquil. Alas, that peace of mind was just momentarily when he found a certain crestfallen student.

A boy with brown-spiky hairs, a herbivore with a small stature. His injured body was covered by layers of battered uniform… Namimori Middle's winter uniform to be exact.

_In summer?_ _Hibari_ has more or less graduated from his school for 10 years, however he still managed the entire school, as well as the city as what he decided. As such, it was impossible for Namimori Middle School to change a rule without informing him. If it were him, it might be possible the boy would receive biting as punishment which would explain his battered state, but by standard procedure in the school rulebook, he was supposed to be, at least, reprimanded. Not that he couldn't connect the dots with how weak the herbivore looked. The uniform was most likely to cover the bruises he got from his bullies.

Instead of approaching, _Hibari _simply observed the boy until he disappeared in the corner. A thought came in his mind and proceeded him to make a call. "Tetsu, inquire the Namimori Middle faculty staff about a student wearing winter uniform today. I want his data on my desk this evening."

_Hibari _couldn't recall the boy he just saw, and _Hibari _remembers all the students in his Namimori schools.

* * *

_Kusakabe _didn't take long to call him back, "Kyou-san, I regret to inform you. The staff said no one wore their winter uniform to school today," with a disappointment.

No, wait, that means the boy he saw was ditching school.

The nerve.

"Alright. Prepare the data of all the students during the year."

"Yes, sir."

He swore he would find him and bite the boy to death.

* * *

"Kyou….-san…?" Ever since an hour ago, his boss had been going back and forth between the documents he had prepared containing the data of all the students in Namimori Schools, both the Middle and High schools. Impatient seemed to grow thin in the ravenet and _Kusakabe _wasn't sure whether he should offer to help when he was rejected a few minutes earlier. The once was a prefect even asked if there was any document he had forgotten to bring and upon _Kusakabe _confirming there was none, the man had scowled. Just what was it that the man was searching for?

"Tetsu," he quickly straightened his posture upon the call, ready at service. "Inform all the student body that I will inspect the schools in two days, and all the faculty along with the students have all to be present."

"Understood."

_Kusakabe _didn't know who it was, but he hoped the student would come out alive after infuriating _Hibari Kyouya _this much.

"Remember, Tetsu, no one is excepted."

The subordinate unconsciously wavered a little in fear when he heard the cold tone, "... Yes, sir."

* * *

It was odd, unbelievably strange. Despite the fact that he was sure he saw the brunet sprinting passed the school gate and entered the school building when he was making his way to the school this morning, he couldn't find the boy anywhere in class, not even in the school building. He had assembled all the students, keeping them in the gym building with the teachers' speech as he searched for him all over the school. However the brunet was nowhere to be seen.

Now, his prey was really testing his patience.

At the very least, he was sure the boy was the student in Namimori Middle school.

To every students' dismay, ever since that day _Hibari Kyouya _once again reigned in Namimori Middle school.

* * *

Keeping himself occupied in his old office, the reception room, back when he was the Namimori Middle's prefect was the right choice. Because ever since then, he encountered the boy more often. The moment he saw him again, _Hibari _immediately jumped from his office window to approach the brunet, however the herbivore was quick to disappear when he reached the ground. The brunet was starting to crowd lately too. Now, the ex-prefect began to not only note the brunet, but also the herbivores who crowded around him to mark as target.

Another black-haired spiky boy who was taller than the brunet and a silveret. The silveret didn't look like a Japanese. Once again, another student _Hibari _couldn't recall. However, he did remember the other one. It sounded impossible but...

At wits end, he collected the data of all the students from all past years, since he'd been attending Namimori Middle school.

There he found the profile of the students he'd been seeing.

The black-haired tall student was _Yamamoto Takeshi _. He was a student who had attempted to commit suicide on his school ground. The disciplinary committee succeeded in stopping him from doing so, but he heard the boy killed himself when he got home.

There was no data of the silveret, but there was someone who looked like the brunet who had put him in this case.

_Sawada Tsunayoshi. _

According to _Kusakabe _'s report back then, the boy had always been bullied in school, and one day, he died in a strange accident.

Both students had died ten years ago.

What was those things he had been seeing then?

_Hibari _began to keep a journal of what he saw. As time goes by, more herbivores had been crowding the brunet, much to his irritation. However, the crestfallen look on the boy's face on the day _Hibari _first saw him was no longer there. Among the crowds, he noticed the Sasagawa siblings, the older one was a graduate who once pestered him to join the boxing club. He put his committee to research those graduate's backgrounds, for any possible connection, and wasn't the least bit surprised when they arrived to nothing.

Just why was he seeing these vision?

Frankly, _Hibari _never believed in anything supernatural. But even when considering that _Sawada Tsunayoshi _died while having regret or a grudge against him, it wouldn't explain these unrealistic vision he'd been seeing.

For what purpose was he witnessing the scenes that never happened?

His irritation had faded, he was intrigued. The more he was presented with the scene, the more he questioned the event.

Was there something tried to convey to him? From who? Is it from _Sawada Tsunayoshi _? Why him?

His journal had gotten longer, but they never answered him.

* * *

The coincidence happened in unlikely time and place. It was four months after he began writing his observation journal. He was writing another event he'd just seen this morning when suddenly he was losing his sight and engulfed by white smokes. For a moment it was as if he was losing senses and by the time he was aware of his surroundings, he was in a corridor of his school and a boy with a baby in his arms was apologizing at him in fear.

"I'M REALLY SORRY, HIBARI-SAN! Lambo, c'mon, you apologize too!"

"No way! Lambo doesn't know anything!"

"AH! LAMBO! YOU LITTLE!" The what-seemed-a-baby who could already speak ran away from the scene. However, what got into _Hibari _'s attention wasn't him.

It was Sawada Tsunayoshi. It was the first time he ever heard the brunet's voice ever since_ Hibari _first saw him.

This couldn't be real.

The boy's high-pitched voice sounded strange in his mind. As he approached him slowly, he could see the boy was trembling… and breathing.

This couldn't be real.

Not believing himself, he reached for the other's cheeks and stretched them until he could hear the boy's screaming, "IT HURTS!"

It sounded impossible, but the Sawada Tsunayoshi, who was holding on his own red cheeks and was looking at him in confusion, in front of him right now was undoubtedly alive.

The boy was breathing, speaking, and in flesh. Although his expression right now was an expression he never saw in his vision, but _Hibari _knew it was the same Sawada Tsunayoshi.

* * *

"Hi-Hibari….-san…?" Tsuna called out once again to the man who had been staring at him without a word. He had met with older Hibari back when they traveled to the future and the man still looked the same, physically.

_I wonder why though… _Something seemed to be a miss. Tsuna couldn't exactly pinpoint which part of the older lad which made him, for a moment, thought the man wasn't Hibari Kyouya.

The older Hibari he had met back them was ... lively, in a sense. Not in a kinder sense, but at the very least showed a different sparkle in his eyes. The Hibari who was in front of him seemed like he was out of it ... and to make matters more confusing, he looked surprised when he saw Tsuna.

Could it be the older Hibari was sleeping and hadn't regained a sense of himself? Tsuna's thought was cut abrupt when he felt the other's hand on his neck, surprising him in a jerk. "Hi-Hibari-san…?" He wasn't going to choke him, right?

On contrary to the fright Tsuna's shown of his action, the _Hibari _seemed relieved. "We finally meet, Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"Eh?"

"For starter, could you explain this? Here is Namimori Middle, right?" This time, Hibari held his hand, much to Tsuna's confusion. Why would the man suddenly be so affectionate?

"E-Err… that's right. Uhm… sorry, Lambo trespassed into the school," is it okay for him to be so honest about this to Hibari?, "and when I was catching him, he threw his bazooka around. Hibari-san was coincidentally coming here when it happened and got switched. Sorry to bother your time, Hibari-san. But, it should have been five minutes soon, so don't worry."

"Five minutes?"

This is really weird. Didn't the adult Hibari from ten years later already know all of this? "Yes. You will return to your world after five minutes," at his words, he could feel the _Hibari _tightened his hold on his hand.

_Hibari-san? _

"I want to confirm something. Is this supposed to be the world in the past?"

"Yes…?"

The ravenet looked thoughtful for a moment and Tsuna was getting even more confused. He watched the man studying the scenery outside the window and heard him murmur, "... It's August…", before once again being asked, "which grade are you right now, Sawada Tsunayoshi?"

"Uhm… I'm in the 2nd…," Tsuna's words trailed off when he once again saw the surprised look on the other's face. It confirmed something was off. "Hibari-san… what's the…"

"TENTH!"

"Oy, Tsuna!"

He turned around and was about to call back to his friend when he felt the hand holding his was released, "Hibari-san…?"

All left was a smirk plastered on the sad older man's face before white smoke engulfed them and the usual teenage Hibari was looking at him bewildered.

Tsuna quickly retracted his hand which was left hanging to his back and smiled apologetically, "A-Ah, Hibari-san… w-welcome back…?"

"Geh, Hibari!" "Yo, senpai!" Gokudera and Yamamoto, who had just come gave their each of their own kind greeting as well.

Knowing they got to scram before tonfa was raisen, Tsuna tugged both of his best friends and turned away slowly, "w-well then… we gotta go…"

"Stay where you are," no way, "bringing trespasser and causing a commotion, I'll bite you to death."

"HIEEEEEEEEEE!" In the end, it'd come to this after all. Wait. Was that a smile he saw in the prefect?

* * *

White ceiling, black chair, black desk… and the observation journal which spread open on said desk.

As the brunet had said, he had come back.

_It really was only a short time _. His hands could still feel the pulse and the warmth of the boy.

He wasn't dreaming. He had traveled to the past and met Sawada Tsunayoshi, the boy who had been appearing in an after-image vision, who was supposed to be dead ten years ago. He had spoken and saw the boy was alive one year four months after his supposed death month.

"Parallel worlds…. Is it?" He had encountered the term before in the novels he read. The unbelievable theory of existence, the most plausible answer to what he had experienced. He had never taken any interest in it before. Leaning back slightly on his chair, _Hibari _covered his eyes tiredly. The moment he finally made up his mind, he took out his phone and dialed the first number on his cellphone.

"Tetsu," he straightened himself as he reached for his pen which was on the journal…

In which he found words written on the last page, below what he had left before.

_Just who is Sawada Tsunayoshi? _

\- A little animal who I will bite to death.

A simple answer to his question in the handwriting he'd known so well.

_"Hibari-san was coincidentally coming here when it happened and got switched." _

So that was what it meant by being switched.

"A little animal, huh…"

_["Kyou-san?"] _

"There's something I need you to prepare immediately. I'll email about it later."

_["Yes, sir."] _

It'd been a long time since he recognized this feeling. Excitement? Awaiting? That didn't sound right…

Ah, right if he had to call it, this feeling must be…

"So envious…"

… an unsightly envy.

-end-

* * *

"Ne, Reborn…"

"What is it?"

"Since we had locked our choice at _that time _, when we are shot by the ten-years bazooka now, it's only possible that we get switched with our future selves according to the choice, right?"

Reborn fell silent as he studied his tuteelage's solemn expression. "Did something happen with Hibari before?"

Knowing there was no use to hide anything from his tutor, Tsuna nodded. "I wonder why the adult Hibari-san looked so surprised when he saw me."

_"We finally meet, Sawada Tsunayoshi." _

It was as if they had never met before.

"Well, technically, that's how it's supposed to be. But parallel worlds still exist and had existed. The bazooka was probably malfunctioning and it instead got switched with a completely different parallel world."

"Although Byakuran had almost destroyed everything?"

"The world is vast and has many mysteries, no-good Tsuna."

Everything we do create more than thousands of possibilities and parallel worlds, or so it had been explained.

It would mean there was also a world where Hibari and he would never cross paths.

Tsuna wondered, as he looked at the sky outside his window, at that world what kind of life he had.

* * *

-Wait for me, little animal. I never let go of my prey.-

* * *

the characters' name written in italic (except their dialogue) are from the parallel world if you didn't realize.

originally the idea was in my tumblr...

"Something like Hibari is 24 y.o. and a businessman, who sometimes can't escape from rush-hours. At this time, when his car would be stopped by the traffic, he often saw a middle-schooler, who was actually Tsuna (14 y.o.) [The rush hour could be at the same time as Tsuna usually was out of school or something -4 p.m.?]

At first he wasn't interested and Tsuna was alone. Then gradually he noticed like people brushed the brunet off or something and regarded him weak, then Tsuna slowly got friends…or something, etc.

Here is what I want to ask opinion of. I thought of two alternative storyline.

Alternative #1 Cliche. They finally met. Like through something, yada yada get to know each other, all the necessary problem and stuff, etc. You know the drill.

Alternative #2 Or Tsuna was actually a ghost. Who had a certain affection to Hibari and clung to the man, and all the thing Hibari saw at the street was actually his memory or something."

and by poll, people choose alt 2.

there was a lot changing to the original plot.

and the after image became something the Hibari-we-all-know vision of observing tsuna co being projected to the future hibari who has never met tsuna.

i feel unsatisfied with how it came to be. and sometimes the words i wrote felt weird i don't know what i was doing. i wanted to use the manga hibari's "urayamashii na..." but it didn't come out /

sigh.

Uhm... I will be glad if you could tell me your thought about it...


End file.
